Defense: Spain gives up buying American F-35

Spain, which plans to acquire several dozen fighter planes, opted for European devices, the Spanish Defense Ministry said on Wednesday. This choice was made to the detriment of American F-35s, the purchase of which is also increasingly questioned in Switzerland.

“The choice of Spain goes through the current Eurofighter and the next FCAS,” the ministry told AFP in a short response, confirming a Madrid daily “El País” article.

According to this newspaper, which quotes Spanish government sources, the left government of Pedro Sánchez has “definitively” waived to buy F-35, because it considers that such a transaction would be “incompatible” with its decision to devote 85% of the additional funds released to the defense to European equipment.

This choice displayed for European devices, if confirmed, has the potential to further increase the current tensions between Washington and Madrid, who suffered from the refusal of Mr. Sánchez, during the last NATO summit, to undertake to bring the military expenses of Spain to 5% of its national wealth, as the American president Donald Trump demanded the members of the Alliance.

Mr. Sánchez had announced shortly before Spain was going to bring his defense budget to 2% of GDP this year.

In its 2023 budget, Spain had planned a first amount of 6.25 billion euros to replace the Harrier devices of the Navy and the F-8 of the Air Force.

The specialized British publication Janes, generally very well informed, said last year that Madrid was planning to order 50 F-35 units, an airplane made by the American firm Lockheed Martin.

Three European countries (Germany, Spain and France) are involved in the SCAF, a very ambitious project which must be developed by Dassault Aviation, Airbus and the Spanish company Indra Sistemas.